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May 11, 2006

Study Finds 40% of Medical Malpractice Claims Are Groundless

This probably won't come as a big surprise to doctors — or to ambulance-chasing brigands like the Breck Girl — but according to a Harvard analysis, about 40% of the medical malpractice cases filed in the USA are groundless.

Researchers reported that many lawsuits offer no evidence of medical error or of patient injury. Lawsuits deemed groundless accounted for 15% of the loot forked over in settlements or verdicts.

Harvard being a Democratic bastion, the study's lead researcher attempted to spin the results as evidence that tort reform is unnecessary. The American Medical Association disagreed. For their part, the locusts at the Association of Trial Lawyers for America denounced the study as biased.

Although doctors have to pay through the nose with astronomical malpractice insurance rates to finance lawyers' lavish lifestyles, in the end, the costs are passed along to the consumer — which goes a very long way toward explaining why health care is so expensive.

Posted by Van Helsing at May 11, 2006 9:41 PM